GENEVA, May 16. /TASS/: The threat to Russia resulting from NATO, US and Britain’s military policies in Ukraine was real, Gennady Gatilov, Russia's permanent representative to the UN headquarters in Geneva, said at the plenary session of the Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday.
"The threat to Russia's security from the military development of Ukraine's territory was real and acute and similar to what the US itself experienced during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis," he said.
Gatilov dismissed as falsehoods the accusations made by the US and other NATO countries against Moscow to the effect that the conflict in Ukraine was allegedly "unprovoked aggression."
"In deciding on a special military operation Russia took into account many security factors," the Russian envoy said.
In this regard, Gatilov recalled "the Kiev regime's agreement in principle to the accelerated strategic development of Ukrainian territory by the NATO 'nuclear alliance' hostile to Russia" as well as "our country's two nuclear adversaries - the US and Britain.
These countries "had been pursuing an openly anti-Russian policy long before the current events in Ukraine."
"In this context, it is worth recalling London's construction of a naval base in the Ukrainian port city of Ochakov, NATO's anti-Russian exercise Sea Breeze in the summer of 2021, which ended with the reckless behavior of a British ship that came under fire from the Russian armed forces and was forced to retreat," Gatilov said. Furthermore, he continued, in September 2020, the US Air Force "used the airspace over Ukrainian territory for familiarization flights by heavy US B-52 nuclear-capable strategic bombers."
The Russian envoy noted that Moscow had warned of "the unacceptability of these irresponsible and destabilizing actions" and proposed "various initiatives for preventing the emerging conflict".
